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An argument over a parking spot in Ho Chi Minh City Friday night almost turned deadly when a bank executive whipped out a gun and pointed it at the face of a taxi company employee before guards and police officers intervened.

The police have seized a pistol with three bullets from Tran Thai Hoa, 47, deputy general director of the city-based Viet A bank.

Huynh Thi Thanh Vy, 25, a passenger assistant of Mai Linh taxi company, who has the job of ushering fares to her company’s taxis at a building in District 7, said Hoa wanted to park his car at a spot allotted to her company.

Hoa was driving backward toward the spot when she tapped the car to show him she was standing there and that the spot was taken, and that made him angry, she said.

Hoa allegedly asked her a couple times if she wanted to live or die, before pulling a gun out of his car to scare her.

A taxi driver at the spot tried to stop the argument, telling Hoa to find another spot.

The fracas had almost ended when Hoa said he would forgive Vy this time “though I can shoot her anytime I want.”

This angered Vy who said, “This is not a jungle.”

At this, Hoa put the weapon against her mouth.

The woman said: “It was very quick and firm. The gun hit my teeth, made me bleed.”

Then someone called the building guards, and Hoa hid the gun and tried to run but the guards managed to stop him and handed him to the police.

Vy said she had panicked and has taken several days off to recover from the ordeal.

'I was wrong'

Hoa has produced a gun license issued by the police in the southern province of An Giang to the bank’s local branch, and a document that proves the branch has allowed him to carry the gun.

"I was wrong. I was angry then," he told Tuoi Tre newspaper.

He said Vy had banged on his car and told him that her company bought the parking spot, which according to him was unreasonable.

When several drivers of the company came over, he panicked and took out the gun, he said.

"I have apologized to her."

A representative of Viet A on Saturday confirmed that the bank gave him the gun, without specifying for what tasks.